"Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle Yeah"

     An update on how Rocking II went is finally here! It's only taken me all week. I'll start by saying that with how the entire week leading up to Rocking II went, I did not in any way expect to finish in second place and as well as I did. With a frustrating week, I embraced the coming weekend with as much optimism as I had left (which wasn't all that much).
     It rained yet again on Friday when I did dressage and show jumping. Before Mike got to warm up, I'd already practically warmed myself up (mostly because I am always on way earlier than I should be). I told him I didn't want to do much more until right before I went in. Knowing how Stoney gets very worried and tense with the more I do with him, he agreed and trusted my judgment. After walking for about ten minutes, I picked up my trot just as the girl before me was finishing up her test and entered the ring, pulling out a consistent and nice test. Yes, it lacked a little enthusiasm, but I chose to have the laziness and flopping ears over the tenseness and explosions. Both Mike and I were quite happy with my test even if it was scored higher than the one at Ocala. We both knew it had improved since then, and all the scores in my division were quite high. Later that weekend, I got my test back, and I couldn't help but laugh a little when I read the judge's comment saying, "needs more energy." If she had only seen us at Ocala... He's a thoroughbred. That's enough explanation in itself. Like I said, I'll take the flopping ears any day. Even towards the end of our test, his last two movements were quite quick and tense, and I knew that two movements being that way verses the entire test was definitely the better call.
     Earlier that week we worked a lot with just trotting down center line. Yes. Quite an easy movement... or so you think. For Stoney, it is always a challenge after he has performed leg yeilds, counter canters, etc. It's incredibly interesting how our first time coming down center line is flawless, but when finishing up our test, I can't get my horse to trot down center line and halt without swinging his haunches out every which way. He just gets so amplified on my aids.The more I do with him, the more of a wiggling worm he becomes under me. I can't describe it in a better way.
     This, along with the tension, was also what we were hoping to prevent from happening at Rocking II, and thankfully we did. Seriously, less is more with this horse. In every phase.
     Going into show jumping, I was not too impressed with our warm up. He kept hitting rails and not trying all that hard. Heather said not to worry because he always jumps better when he gets in the ring, and apprehensively I took her word for it. Once we got in there, he was fantastic. Even with jumping a vertical on an angle and getting him in deep to a few other verticles (all of which substantially increased our chances of hitting rails), he tried his heart out for me and managed to leave all the rails in place. I can honestly say that was the first time since owning that horse these past two years that we have managed to have a clear show jumping round without knocking rails. How exciting is that?
     After show jumping, I realized I was in eighth place. Going into cross country, my goal was to not only get around clean (which I'd been successful with our other two prelims), but also get around in the time allowed (something we were not yet successful with).
     The cross country course had some difficult questions for prelim, and Stoney handled them all with ease. Even the water (which was a difficult water for prelim and had quite a big drop into water) rode perfectly. It truly amazes me how each time out this horse just gets more and more confident with his job.
     Once I finally grasped my head around the fact we actually had to gallop between fences instead of cruising in our twenty foot stride, it was quite easy for us to make the time. I mentally made myself gallop on between every fence, even if the next one wasn't too far away in my eyes. It also helped that I was beginning to pull up and balance 3 strides away from the fence instead of 6 or 8 strides out. No wonder I was so slow. I just wasn't comfortable galloping up to a fence like that because I wasn't quite sure I'd have such adjustability. Go me for undermining my horse's ability and maturity.
     Coming in ten seconds before optimum, we managed to finish on our dressage score for the first time ever. This put Stoney and I in second place. Thrilled doesn't even begin to describe it.
      Now that we have our three qualifying prelims, we are entered to do the CIC* at Poplar at the end of March. I think I am more nervous than excited at this point. You can't blame me when I've never done an FEI event. There are many things different with an FEI event verses a regular competition, so it's no surprise I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. I'm just happy we have another prelim (Rocking III) this next weekend to put under our belts before competing at Poplar.
     Even with my mishaps this past week with my truck having problems and a few of my items having gone missing at the barn, I'm still trucking on... barely. My horse is literally the only thing keeping me going right now. If it wasn't for his improvements he's made in our lessons this week, I don't think I'd be able to get myself through the week.
     With only 8 more days left here in Florida, I will definitely make the best of it. I myself still can't believe I'm leaving in a little over a week because it seems like we haven't been here all that long. Although I'm excited to compete at Rocking III, I am definitely more than ready to get back home and live with my "second family." It's been a little stressful at times being here by myself (even with everyone looking out for me), and I can't wait to get back to the Ehlers' and for them to come back from Florida as well. They definitely feel like my second set of parents...or technically my third in this case.
     I guess the only word to describe my life at this point would be surreal. I still can't seem to accept it all. Even out hacking earlier this week, I looked at the cross country questions from the weekend before and couldn't wrap my head around the fact that we did them and we did them effortlessly. With others who's horses have done more than they themselves have, it may not come off feeling the same way. However, having a horse who has come from ground zero and only has the amount of experience and miles on him that I've put forth, I find is extremely difficult to wrap my head around it all and how far he has come. It's a feeling I don't think I'll ever get used to for as long as I keep riding this horse.

I Only Got the Middle Finger Once- Rocking Horse I

     Please contain your utter surprise when I start off by saying that so much has happened since I've been in Florida these past three weeks (almost three weeks). In the few minutes I've been sitting here trying to gather my thoughts on how to explain it all, I've decided it's best to just go in chronological order. So here we go.

     After splitting the twenty hour trip into two days and over nighting in Baton Rouge, Stoney and I finally made it to Rocking Horse at around seven at night on the seventeenth. I was actually making great time, but when I was only three miles from my exit on to the highway, there was a bad wreck on the interstate, resulting in me covering a mile in an hour and a half. Being only 50 miles from the farm after traveling for so long, I was not the only one who was unhappy with the circumstances. After behaving for close to 45 minutes, my impatient horse began to paw and kick (what an angel he is), resulting in my truck and trailer shaking and me ignoring the awkward stares from others in their vehicles. I couldn't blame the poor guy though. Seeing as I accidentally passed the first inspection sight slowed me down as well. Not only did I get pulled over, but I then had to stop and let them scan all my paperwork in at the second inspection sight about 250 miles into Florida. But hey, I'm only eighteen. The fact I made the trip successfully on my own (with that ONE exception) was an accomplishment in itself.

     Mike got to the farm the next day and we, along with Jessica Pye, spent the entire day unloading equipment and setting things up, as well as taking care of the four horses he brought along. I'll tell you, I have no clue how Mike did it. Not only did he drive twenty hours straight through the night by himself, but he spent the entire day working and THEN proceeded to get on a flight back to Dallas that night at seven o'clock. That's just crazy. After listening to him call back the clients who'd left him voice mails that day for most of the hour drive to the airport, I couldn't help but wonder how he does it. 

     Once dropping Mike off, there were just us two. Yes, just Jessica and me. I spent the next few days riding Stoney, the other four horses, and doing barn chores. That, in itself, made for about ten hour days. Did I mention the first day I got to take care of the horses, the Hubers' 17'2 hand three year old, decided to jump out of his paddock when turned out? Yeah. An hour later when I began to bring them in, another of their horses decided to jump out as well. What a great first day to start things off.

     After a few more days (which were thankfully a lot less eventful), Maggie and Claire soon showed up, along with the THREE loads of horses that came that Monday. Eventually once every one made it, we hit a grand total of 32 horses.

     With the week leading up to Rocking I, Stoney and I had a few rough lessons. Don't get me wrong, we improved, but it wasn't without some moments, that's for sure. Caroline O'Keefe would have defined these as some "coming to Jesus" moments for my horse. However, it's safe to say everyone and their mother knows the kind of obnoxious horse I deal with on a regular basis now. 

     After working a lot on our counter canter and leg yields and Mike continuously making me perform my dressage test, I finally felt confident with it going into this weekend. Did I think we'd blow it out of the water? Not really. Did I think we could perform it without embarrassing ourselves and it be decent? Yes.

     Friday morning in the rain, I did just that with my dressage test, scoring a 41.8. Although Stoney "gave me the middle finger" (as Maggie pointed out he likes to do) with our leg yield to the right, he performed the one to the left flawlessly and even got an 8 on one of his counter canters. Of course, it wasn't ALL great, and the judge commented on our other counter canter as "very awkward." Story of my life. But hey, he only flipped me the bird once. It's progress. Mike said it was the best we'd performed the test from start to finish since we began practicing it, and that was definitely the truth.

     After dressage, I began to get the eleven horses Mike and Heather were riding that weekend ready for their phases they were performing. Believe it or not, it actually all ran extremely smoothly and without too much stress. Mike and Heather are incredibly organized in how they handle their rides, as well as being there in the warm up for their students. You could never ask for anyone better. Having Bonner Carpenter, Mary Frances Cargile, and Elizabeth Crowder there helping get horses ready while I was out riding that weekend was a big help as well. I am beyond thankful for such helpful friends.

     In the afternoon, I had my show jumping round. It was a nice course but a disappointment that I couldn't see a distance to save my life. I'd never jumped so many fences in warm up before getting it right. Thanks to my lack of good judgement, we had two rails. However, I was extremely happy with Stoney in that when I saw the longer distance, he moved up when I asked, and when I saw the need to add a stride, he did, still making the effort to clear the rail even after I buried him to the fence. We had an oxer with two strides out over a vertical, and when I asked him to jump in over the oxer as big as he did, I had flash backs to a year ago. You know, the kind of horse that would leave strides out of combinations? Well, upon landing I thought, there's no way we're going to get two strides in here. Little did I know, my horse thought otherwise and somehow left the vertical up as he added in a very tight stride. I can't stress enough on here how much this horse has matured in the fact that he listens and respects (for the most part) my every move now. I even got a tight spot when approaching our triple combination, and he worked it out on his own. I couldn't ask for anything better from him.

     Going into cross country on Saturday, we were in last place. I honestly couldn't have been happier though. I had no care in the world to ribbon, but rather my goals were to create a positive weekend for Stoney and to get a qualifying round in. Go us for achieving both of those goals.

     So back to cross country. Stoney was feeling better than ever in warm up, and my eye was actually working that day. At least I could see a distance that weekend to the fences that wouldn't come down. When walking the course, my only worries were the quite big up banks, one being a one stride to a ditch and the other being a one stride to a hanging log. Of course, I also had my worry of the infamous water. I only worried about the banks because of how I couldn't see a distance the day before. However, we attacked them, and I got to the base of them perfectly. And the water? Well, let's just say my horse was a rockstar. (: When walking my course, Mike and I went through what to do if I had a stop at the water (more so to make it a training exercise and learning experience for Stoney in the future). Thankfully, I didn't end up having to do this.

     After jumping the second fence on course, a pretty decently wide table, I could see the realization come to my horse that these jumps were bigger than what we'd done before. He kicked it up a notch and was quite happy with the fact that he was now getting to jump decent size fences and actually having to put forth a bit of effort.

     He handled the coffin complex and the corner like it was nothing. Absolutely none of the questions that were asked phased him. With every jump, I got him there perfectly, and every single one he seemed to boldly say, "I got this." I'm still having to learn to adjust to the difference in speeds from training level to preliminary, and although I let him go faster between the fences than I ever did at training level, we still had a bit of time. By a bit, I mean only 8 seconds over. How could someone not be more proud of their horse?

     Although I did not go into the weekend with the mindset of wanting to ribbon, I ended up placing seventh. Apparently seventh place seems to like us quite a lot, seeing as three of the four ribbons I now have are purple. I'm definitely not complaining though. Getting a ribbon this past weekend was just icing on the cake. After my scores were posted online, I realized that with redoing the scores for junior ranking only, I actually ended up in fourth. How cool is that? Everyone else did extremely well too, especially for the first show of the season (for most). There definitely weren't many cobwebs to dust off the Gold Chip crew, that's for sure.

     Having my mother in Florida this past weekend made it even better. Although I was working, my mother would leave for large amounts of time, socializing with everyone else but her daughter. We even had "taco night" while she was there, and it's safe to say her taco soup and guacamole dip were a huge hit. However, she was always there cheering me on, and by cheering me on I really mean holding her breath. It's safe to say my mother isn't worried for my overall safety and well being, seeing as she walked my cross country course and wasn't apprehensive about the bigger fences. Her only worries involved dressage and show jumping. I do have to thank her though for walking my obnoxious horse around while I was working and also making him stand still for twenty minutes in his whirlpool boots filled with ice water after cross country (even after he bit her due to complete boredom). I swear, the older my horse gets, the more obnoxious and arrogant he is becoming. It may be because of the vast amount of carrots/treats I give him daily... or because I never discipline him. I'm beginning to think it's a combination of both...

     As for this week, it has been just days of working and training. With every passing day, Stoney and I are improving. Two days ago when schooling on the flat for the first time that week, even Mike was surprised with how great Stoney was. He told me he expected that he would have to get on him. Leave it to Stoney to prove us wrong.

     With this being the only weekend we aren't competing while down here, we may end up doing some fun activities on Monday when we have the day off. With more work and more training the following week, we will then pack up and drive to Ocala for the horse trials there. After Ocala, Stoney and I are planning on competing at Rocking Horse II and Rocking Horse III before heading back home to good ol' Texas.

     With having completed my first prelim, a lot of weight and anxiety has been lifted away. Just that one successful horse trial under our belts is a big confidence booster for the future. I can officially say I have a preliminary horse now, and he is a pretty great one at that.